Exciting cast and creative team announced for Matthew Xia’s powerful new take on Small Island

Meet the exciting cast and creative team joining director Matthew Xia on an unforgettable journey from the sun-drenched shores of Jamaica to the cold, grey streets of 1940s London in Small Island, a powerful new portrayal of Andrea Levy’s multi award-winning novel, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson.

A Leeds Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and Nottingham Playhouse production, in association with Actors Touring Company, this exhilarating new co-production – the first to bring the story to audiences outside London – premieres in the epic Quarry Theatre at Leeds Playhouse on 11 – 28 March before transferring to Birmingham Rep on 1 – 18 April, and Nottingham Playhouse on 28 April – 16 May.

Director Matthew Xia said: “I can’t wait to get in the rehearsal room with this incredible group of artists to reimagine Small Island together. Working with such a talented, courageous and empathetic cast and creative team empowers us to delve deep – beyond nostalgia and heritage – to create a rich immersive world through which we can confront our shared history.  

“I want audiences to feel the elemental force of this story: the power of a Caribbean hurricane set against the post-war austerity of a Britain clinging to empire. But I also want them to feel the hope that propels people across oceans in search of prosperity, opportunity and belonging.”

The full cast includes Anna Crichlow (Tess, Ockham’s Razor; The Innocent in the Fir Tree and Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s Globe) as Hortense; making his professional theatre debut, CBBC presenter and Strictly Come Dancing semi-finalist Rhys Stephenson as Michael; Mark Arends (Moby Dick, Royal & Derngate; Fatherland, Lyric Hammersmith/Frantic Assembly; Mr Bates vs The Post Office, ITV1) as Bernard; musical theatre star and finalist in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Over the Rainbow Bronté Barbé (Katherine Plumber in the original London production of Newsies, Troubadour Theatre;

Kathy in Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder, Edinburgh Fringe and West End; Princess Fiona in Shrek UK Tour) as Queenie; Daniel Ward (Bones in Tambo & Bones, Actors Touring Company and Stratford East/UK Tour in association with Leeds Playhouse; Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Royal Exchange, Manchester; The Amen Corner, National Theatre) as Gilbert.

Paul Hawkyard (The Railway Children, ATC; Warhorse & Birdsong, West End; Here We Go, BBC1) will play Arthur; Rosemary Boyle (Dancing at Lughnasa, Sheffield Crucible/Royal Exchange Theatre; Of Mice and Men, UK Tour; The James Plays, National Theatre/National Theatre Scotland/International Tour) as Mrs Ryder; Marcia Mantack (Of All The Beautiful Things in The World, HOME Manchester; Stepping Out, Vaudeville Theatre; Broken, Ithena Theatre) as Miss Jewel; Everal A Walsh (Through It All Together, Leeds Playhouse; Animal Farm, Leeds Playhouse/Stratford East/Nottingham Playhouse; Amadeus, National Theatre) as Kenneth/Mr Philip; Andre Squire (Greenland Migration, HBO Max/Amazon Prime; Black Ops, BBC; (the) Woman, Park Theatre) as Elwood; Mara Allen (Curan in Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear, Wyndham’s/The Shed, New York; An Octoroon, Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Romantic Getaway, SKY Comedy) as Miss Ma/Celia; Zoe Lambert (The Railway Children, York Theatre Royal production for Bradford City of Culture; The Comedy of Errors, RSC; Threepenny Opera, Northern Stage) as Aunt Dorothy/Miss Todd; Toby Webster (The Score, Theatre Royal Bath/Theatre Royal Haymarket; Whistle Down the Wind, Watermill; The Provoked Wife, RSC) as Kip/Young Man in Sweetshop; Phil Yarrow (Peter Pan Goes Wrong, West End & UK Tour; Room on the Broom, original West End cast; The Split BBC1) as Mr Buxton/Captain Soames/Sgt Thwaites; and Jordan Laviniere (I Wish, Unicorn Theatre/New Victory Theatre, New York; Wuthering Heights, UK Tour; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre) as Little Michael.

Joining director Matthew Xia on the creative team are Set & Costume Designer Simon Kenny; Lighting Designer Ciaràn Cunningham; Movement & Intimacy Director Asha Jennings-Grant; Voice & Dialect Coach Hazel Holder; Fight Director Kev McCurdy; WHAM Designer & Supervisor Dominique Hamilton; Casting Director Lucy Casson CDG; Composer Luke Bacchus; Music Mentor Ben Kwasi Burrell; and Video Designer Gino Green.

This bold new staging of Small Island offers a fresh perspective on a world shaped by empire and entitlement, caught between belonging and unbelonging, disappointment and hope.  

Four unforgettable characters bring this Windrush story to life: Hortense and Gilbert, determined Jamaican migrants in search of belonging and respect; Queenie, an Englishwoman who defies convention; and Bernard, her husband, struggling with change. Together, they discover love across culture, colour and class – and the fragile hope of a shared future.  

Spanning decades and continents, this exhilarating new production draws on the joyful rhythms of calypso and the harsh realities of postwar Britain to explore the emotional truth of our collective history, brought vividly to life through music, striking visuals and a compelling story you will never forget.

Small Island plays at Leeds playhouse 11 – 28 Mar 2026. Tickets are available here.